Where Monsters Dwell (Odd Singsaker, #1)

by Jorgen Brekke

[dpfaef]

Where Monsters Dwell is a strong debut novel from Norwegian author Jorgen Brekke.
Alternating between the sixteenth century and present day. Berrke weaves a story of the practice of medieval anatomy with the present day fascination with a rare book The Book of Johannes, which appears to be written by a medieval serial murder.
In the present two murders occurs, one at the Edgar Allan Poe museum and one at a famous library in Trondheim, Norway. A connection between the two murders is made and American homicide detective Felicia Stone travels to Trondheim where she meets police inspector Odd Singsaker.
Together, Stone and Singsaker follow the clues to find a serial murderer, who is using The Book of Johannes as a guide murder his victims.
What I liked about this book was everyone is a suspect. Brekke presents well defined characters and a gripping but rather slow paced tale of both serial murderers. For me there was a sense of suspense that kept me reading. While the book is gruesome, I found the characters to be more upbeat than in some the other Scandinavian mysteries. If you enjoyed this book you would probably like James Thompson’s Inspector Kari Vaara series.

I received a ARC from Bookbrowse.com